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| "The Energy of the Wind" by Giorgio Vaselli |
Storm on the Island
by Seamus Heaney
We are prepared: we build our houses squat,Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.
This wizened earth has never troubled us
With hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks
Or stooks that can be lost. Nor are there trees
Which might prove company when it blows full
Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branches
Can raise a tragic chorus in a gale
So that you listen to the thing you fear
Forgetting that it pummels your house too.
But there are no trees, no natural shelter.
You might think that the sea is company,
Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs
But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits
The very windows, spits like a tame cat
Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives
And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo,
We are bombarded with the empty air.
Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.
There have been reports this morning that a cyclone or two could be forming off the Aussie coast at present. One out from far north Queensland at this point in time...and the other out from the northern part of Western Australia.
ReplyDeleteA low pressure system off the coast of North Queensland could form into a cyclone over the coming weekend...time will tell...
Those areas up that way have already had a beating from Cyclone Oma and her heartlessness.
We have an Atlantic storm passing over Yorkshire but compared with an Australian cyclone, I guess it's more like a gentle breeze. Just wait till Cyclone Lee hits the landlord's house.
DeleteA storm struck this area last night...thunder, lightning and a heavy downpour. It was very noisy...and the sky light up if by a thousand lights. More to come apparently...with the heat we've been experiencing they are to be expected, I guess.
DeleteWell, I think we have to be prepared for the worst when it comes to a storm. It's usually too late once the storm arrives.
ReplyDeleteDo you get many destructive winds in Central Alberta Red?
DeleteI love the different ways we can interpret a poem. Which storm is the most difficult to survive, the one within or the one without?
ReplyDeleteThat's deep Bonnie. Very deep but I do think it's partly what Heaney was getting at.
DeleteJust love Seamus Heaney, marvellous how poets capture their thoughts precisely but leave us wondering if we had read the poem right.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that Heaney would have given us licence to interpret his poems as we see fit Thelma.
DeleteStorm "Eberhard" has swept across my area last weekend, causing train traffic to be stopped in some parts of Germany and me a wobbly flight to Berlin on Monday morning. I have not listened to the forecast properly but I think there is more in store; just hope our flight to Manchester next week will be smooth. Yes, I know, I am selfish.
ReplyDeleteI hope the weather settles down for you Meike but in March in northern England we anticipate "Mad March Winds" and we have hd them the last few days.
DeleteWhat a wonderfully evocative poem. I am ashamed to admit that I have never read Seamus Heaney but this certainly seems to sum up what is going on around us over here in the "wild west" this week.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your interest in this poem inspires you to read more of Heaney's poetry. His head was not in the clouds - it was in the earth and in the realities of life.
DeleteBoy, you can really see and hear it in your mind, can't you?
ReplyDeleteVisceral. I think that's a useful word for describing Heaney's writing.
DeleteBeing another resident in the 'wild west' I agree the poem sums up the general situation in that houses used to be built to cope with anything the weather could throw at them. Unfortunately modern aspirations altered that for a while although the hurricanes in the last 30 odd years have taught us some lessons.
ReplyDeleteI would love to have produced the painting. It immediately made me think of The Scream.
I am too occupied trying to come to terms with Auden at the moment to start on another poet.
I can see how the picture reminded you of "The Scream".
DeleteI like it. (the poem)
ReplyDeleteWind may look like nothing but it's not. We rightly fear it.
Clearly Heaney's poem made you think about the wind and what is... or isn't.
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